


International Breakdown

by HedwigsTalons



Category: Thunderbirds
Genre: Car breakdown
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-19
Updated: 2020-04-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:14:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23732920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HedwigsTalons/pseuds/HedwigsTalons
Summary: Thunderbird Witch gets into difficulties
Relationships: John Tracy/Selene Tempest
Kudos: 10





	International Breakdown

**Author's Note:**

  * For [WillowDragonCat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WillowDragonCat/gifts).



> Written for #irrelief set by @gumnut-logic on Tumblr. This was written for @willow-salix who challenged people to use her OC, Selene.

The radio was on, the autopilot was doing its thing and Thunderbird Witch was eating up the miles towards home. Selene sang along, belting out words at the top of her voice and tapping out the beat on the edge of the steering wheel.

Ok, she had been majorly sceptical of the upgrades to her little car to begin with but after a few long haul trips to the island she could see the benefits of being able to fly. It certainly made visiting clients easier. It was a lot faster in the air than on the ground and she didn’t have to worry about traffic jams. In just ten minutes she should be back on the outskirts of London ready to finish her journey on the more conventional four wheels. She considered calling out for pizza; she should be home before the delivery ready to gorge herself on the cheesy goodness. Her stomach rumbled at the prospect.

Her stomach wasn’t the only thing making ominous noises.

The engine coughed and spluttered; a disconcerting thing to happen at 15,000 feet. The radio was swiftly muted. It was one thing doing her best rendition of Les Mis while the car was purring like a kitten but an engine stutter was an instant mood killer.

The engine coughed again.

Selene urged her precious car onwards, invoking prayers to every deity imaginable not to let her plunge to her death in a twisted heap of mangled metal and glass. The car continued to do its best impression of a tractor and jolts could be felt shuddering though its body as the engine misfired. 

The looming tide of dread threatened to tip the scales into full blown panic as the engine gave its largest hiccup yet. It was time to contact the other omnipresent being in her life.

“John, sweetie. Are you busy?”

Up on Thunderbird Five John’s attention instantly swivelled to the voice coming through the private comms line. His emergency responder senses latched on to the tone he only heard when Selene was stressed. Really stressed. He switched control of monitoring over to Eos so he could give his witch his full attention.

“Never too busy for you, babe.”

“So, um, if the vehicle you were flying suddenly, um, wanted to stop flying. What would you do?”

Something told him this wasn’t a hypothetical question. The stressed tone had taken on that higher pitched edge of rising fear. A quick tap into the diagnostics for Thunderbird Witch showed a serious engine fault. Unfortunately, unlike the other Thunderbirds Selene’s car only had a single means of propulsion to rely on. And no wings. If the engine cut out gravity would be making itself known very quickly.

“Selene, honey. Firstly just breathe for me. Now, are the landing controls working?”

“Landing controls?”

Ok, so the fear of falling out the sky had wiped all rational thought from her head. Like trying to land. John knew he needed to tread carefully or risk the mortal dread overriding her ability to respond. Selene had never been a particularly enthusiastic flyer and having to deal with an emergency was a step too far outside her comfort zone.

“Landing controls. The red button. I need you to press it for me and tell me what happens.”

Selene made a jab at the red button and instantly returned her hand to the wheel. He knuckles were white as she gripped the wheel for dear life as though trying to hold the car up in the sky through her own brute strength and willpower.

The automatic landing system overrode the autopilot and the car began to sink towards the ground.

“Um, I’m going down?”

“At normal rate?”

It didn’t matter that John now had the full read-outs from her craft up in front of him and could see the rate of descent himself, he just wanted to keep her talking.

“Uh, I think so. It’s a bit more….bumpy…than usual.”

He watched the holographic representation of her altimeter as it ticked towards zero, willing the car to reach the ground quickly but not too quickly.

Another jolt and the car dropped a good five foot before the engine kicked in again. The plunge towards the ground came with an accompanying yelp over the comms followed by gasping breaths as a more appropriate rate of descent was regained.

“You’re doing brilliantly sweetie. Just keep her straight and let the car do the rest. You got this.”

The altitude readings fell lower and lower. Closer to the ground and safety.

Out of the darkness the ground loomed up from beneath the rapidly descending craft, her headlamps picking out the sweep of a grassy field. At least she didn’t need to worry about avoiding civilisation. Or trees. People tended to ask awkward questions if they saw the unusual vehicle coming in to land. She also didn’t trust having to pilot the craft any more than the bare minimum of keeping it in a straight line. She felt the whirr of motors as the wheels swivelled back to their driving position and a thunk as the car settled on to the ground.

Selene jabbed at the red button again, cutting the still spluttering engine and letting blissful silence descend. She leant forwards and rested her head against the steering wheel. The only sound was the quiet plinks of cooling metal.

“Selene? Babe? Are you still with me?”

She took deep breaths as a wave of nausea spread over her, not trusting herself to speak until the feeling subsided.

“Selene, are you ok?”

“Of course I’m not fucking ok” she screamed into the darkness, causing John to flinch at the sudden change in volume. “This death trap threatened to dump me out of the sky. I’m in the middle of fucking nowhere, I’m tired and I can’t get home”

Bizarrely John found this outburst strangely reassuring. Once Selene retreated into herself she could block out the world. A Selene on the angry side of frightened he could deal with. 

He checked her co-ordinates. 

She was right about one thing; she was in the middle of nowhere. Rural Derbyshire if his UK geography was accurate.

“Just try stating it up again for me.”

“And then what? I’m not flying this bloody thing again. At least not until someone has checked it out. And it’s not like I can just call the AA to come give it a once over and a jump start.”

“Look. Just stay there.” He chose to ignore the muttered ‘not like I can go anywhere else’. “I’ll send Virgil to pick you up. You were meant to be heading to the island anyway tomorrow. This way you just get here a bit early. I’ll head down and meet you at home.”

The comms went silent for Selene as John contacted his brothers and arranged for a recovery service. Thankfully the green behemoth was currently deployed on a rescue but that was winding up. An inventory check showed that there should be just enough space in the pod to pick up the car without having to return to base first. He could have Selene back on the inland and in his arms before the clock struck midnight. Or should that be midday if they were going by Tracy Island time?

For Selene the silence was a chance to try and recover her heart rate. She regretted subjecting John to her verbal torrent but it had gone some way to bringing her back down to Earth.

Down to Earth. That sounded nice.

What she really needed was to feel the soil beneath her feet. To ground herself and rebalance the flow of energy. Flying always put her slightly out of sorts. Flying coupled with a near death experience left her feeling decidedly off kilter. She felt the urge to stand beneath the waxing moon and breathe the night air. To free herself from her mechanical prison. To reconnect with the Earth in a way that didn’t result in her smeared across the grass.

She kicked off her shoes into the footwell and stripped off her socks.

Before she could release herself from the claustrophobic confines of the car John’s voice came back through the comms.

“Thunderbird Two is about an hour out from you. Just sit tight and Virgil will be with you soon.”

“Great. You think that brother of yours….holy crap, what was that?

She squealed as _something_ bumped into the car, making the vehicle rock slightly on its suspension. For the second time that night her heart rate climbed. She could feel the thudding all the way up to the back of her throat. She checked that the door locks were engaged then instinctively shrunk away from the glass, sinking down low in her seat. All thoughts of grounding herself driven from her mind.

“Selene?”

“Someone’s out there.” It came out as a hoarse whisper.

The outside world was pitch black. Selene could see nothing beyond the boundaries of the car. 

“There can’t be. There isn’t a house for miles. What on earth would anyone be doing in a field in the middle of the night?”

“Well I’m here aren’t I?”

“I think the chances of two flying cars breaking down in the same place are remote. I’m not picking up any other human life signs in your area.”

“That is not reassuring. I don’t care about chances, I’m telling you, someone is out there. I’ve seen Blair Witch Project. This is not going to end well.”

“This is not like one of those stupid films you and Scott like to watch.”

“Cretin. Just tell Virgil to get here quickly.”

Selene rechecked the door locks just in case they had miraculously sprung open over the course of the conversation. John might not believe her but she knew she had felt something. Cars didn’t rock themselves. She grabbed a blanket she had stashed in the back of the car, huddled down as low as possible, and prepared to wait it out. 

The night stayed silent and free of any more mysterious bumps. It had been a long day, even before her unexpected flight deviation. In the absence of any more encounters with malevolent beings Selene found herself dozing off under the warmth of the blanket.

A sharp rapping on the window dragged her back into consciousness with a startled jolt. She scrabbled at the blanket and only ended up startling herself further as she caught the horn; the sudden noise blaring through the night.

There was a rattle as the door handle was tried and then a face appeared close to the glass, hands cupped around it in an effort to see into the car better. Selene pulled the blanked over her head and lay still in a futile attempt to hide.

The tapping on the glass sounded again.

“International Breakdown. Would madam care for some assistance?”

Gordon. 

Selene untangled herself from the blanket and unlocked the doors. She quickly wrapped its warm folds around herself again as a blast of icy air filled the car. 

“Gordon, how the hell did you get here?”

She tried to look dignified and not like she’d had the crap scared out of her. The grin on Gordon’s face as he braced an arm against the car roof and peered down at her showed she was fooling no one.

“Duh, I flew here. Like you.”

“So why the hell didn’t I hear you arrive. And where is Two anyway?”

“Virg had to park her a couple of fields over. Couldn’t risk roasting the locals. John said you had some trouble with them.”

Selene gave him a death glare. Gordon ignored it, instead choosing to wander round the car and get into the passenger seat. He flicked the blue button that kicked the engine into life then leant across and twiddled the controls for the lights.

In the beam of the headlights that illuminated a broad sweep of the field ahead could be seen the forms of several cows laying asleep on the ground around them. The beasts associated vehicles in their field with food. Their stomachs and their natural curiosity had caused them to wander over and congregate around the small black car.

Gordon activated his comms.

“Thunderbird Four to Thunderbird Two. Car’s sounding like a tank but I think it’ll make it to your position without needing the tool kit. Heading your way now.”

“FAB Gordon.”

Accompanied by much sputtering and juddering from the protesting engine Selene coaxed the car around the cows and towards the field edge in the direction indicated by Gordon who leapt out to open and close gates as required. Really she was lucky the cows had been on the other side of the field when she first landed. A collision with half a tonne of prime dairy stock would not have been fun.

Soon the car was nestled into the pod, safely strapped down amongst all the other equipment and Selene was safely settled in the cockpit alongside Virgil and Gordon. VTOL engaged with a roar as the mighty transporter made its return to base with its additional cargo.

By the time Thunderbird Two made it back to the island John was ready and waiting for her in the hanger.

If John was expecting to be greeted as the hero of the hour he was sorely mistaken. Instead of Selene rushing forward for a hug he found himself on the receiving end of a finger jabbed in his chest.

“You, John Tracy, are a shit.”

His eyes widened as hers narrowed.

“What have I done now?”

“You told me there were no life signs in that field. You lied to me and made out that it was my imagination.”

“I didn’t lie to you. I would never lie to you.”

“So how come you were able to warn Virgil and Gordon about those bloody cows? I know you did because they told me. Did your scanners miraculously get an upgrade?”

John found himself edging backwards. He knew he was baiting the tiger but he couldn’t let the false accusation go unchallenged.

“I didn’t lie. What I said was there were no human life signs in that field.”

Unsurprisingly this did not endear him to Selene.

“I have had to put up with Gordon teasing me the whole way back because of you. If I start finding little stick men hanging up around the place I will know exactly who to blame. Now I’m going to bed. I don’t care if it’s the middle of the day here, I have been up for the last 18 hours and I’m tired.”

“I’ll come up and help you get settled.”

“No. You won’t. Virgil, who is nice, has agreed to take a look at my car but not until it’s clean. If you want to stand any chance of coming near me ever again I suggest you get scrubbing.”

Selene stalked off towards the living quarters leaving a slightly stunned astronaut in her wake.

John felt a heavy hand land on his shoulder. He turned to see smirking chestnut eyes. 

“That’s one pissed off witch you have there.”

John nodded weakly and allowed Virgil to lead him towards the car which had been moved out of the hanger and on to the runway.

He groaned as a bucket of soapy water and sponge appeared at his side.

No wonder Virgil didn’t want to work on the car yet. It looked like the cows had some serious digestive issues. The usually gleaming black paintwork was splattered and smeared with cow shit from its journey across the fields. As he got closer the smell hit him as the tropical heat warmed the muck and baked it on.

“Best get started Johnny. Once you finish here you can move on to cleaning out Two. This is nothing compared to what fell off the bottom into the pod on the flight home.”

With another slap on the back Virgil was gone, leaving John to his unenviable task. 

He sighed, picked up the sponge and started cleaning.


End file.
